Carbon monoxide clears City Hall

News-Times, The (Danbury, CT)

Published
8:00 pm EDT, Friday, August 29, 2008

"They created a situation that released carbon monoxide into the building. We had to evacuate people from the building," Boughton said.
The incident was reported about 7:30 a.m. as other workers were arriving at City Hall. No one was allowed inside the building, and everyone already inside was ordered out.
An electrical contractor is replacing an old generator in the City Hall basement. The work is being done overnight, and electricity was shut off in the building Thursday night into Friday morning.
Workers using a portable generator to power their tools apparently put the generator in a crawl space, which allowed carbon monoxide to spread throughout City Hall, triggering alarms in the building before their shift ended.
The contractor, Central Electrical Generators of Cheshire, was not cited.
"It's just something they have to think about a little bit more," Boughton said. "They have to review their safety procedures."
Firefighters placed fans throughout the building and opened doors to allow the carbon monoxide to dissipate.
City Hall was reopened at 9:24 a.m. Parts of the building, including the stairwells, smelled like fuel for most of the day.
An ambulance was dispatched to the building again at 1 p.m. after two workers on the third floor complained of headaches.
Firefighters returned to the scene and took air samples, which showed carbon monoxide was not present.
Boughton said two of the contractors had elevated levels of carbon monoxide in their bodies, but not enough to warrant a trip to the hospital.